2010 Soap Box Archives

Roadies

When you go to a concert you see a band come on stage and play, there is no way for the average person to know what is going on backstage and what has gone on behind the scenes in the 24 hours preceding the show.

The truth of the matter is that the musicians put in about three hours a day of actual work. From the time they leave the hotel until they're back on the bus for the night.

Not so with the road crew. Let me lay out a typical day for a roadie.

Arrive at the venue usually around noon or earlier depending on show time -and other factors- spend the day setting up and testing mountains of equipment, tuning sound systems and focusing lights.

They say a woman's work is never done. Well, neither is a road manager's.

It's their responsibility to check the band and crew into the motel, get the crew and drivers to the venue, make sure the stagehands show up, set schedules for the band's departure from the motel, put out any brush fires that arise during the day, pick up the day's pay from the promoter before the band takes to the stage, get the band brought to the venue, get them on stage, after the show make sure the equipment is all packed up and secure, check everybody out of the motel, set and post the schedules for the next day and finally and at last crawl into his bunk for some much needed rest, which could very well be interrupted in the middle of the night if there is a problem like a vehicle breakdown or bad weather.

There are no unimportant jobs in a traveling band, there are times when the drivers are the most important people in the outfit, in the midnight hours as they maneuver tons of truck loaded with equipment or buses loaded with human cargo across the busy highways of America.

My roadies are some of my most valuable employees. They are actually the unsung heroes of the music business and if all the roadies were to suddenly disappear at eight o'clock on a Saturday night, the music business would come to an immediate and screeching halt.
As I have made friends with so many bands over the years I have also made friends with their road crews and so fondly remember the friendships.
A lot of roadies acquired colorful names through the years, names like, "Red Dog," "Twiggs," "Gyro," "Punko," "Mule," "Poodie," "Skinny," "Big Eye," "Puff," "Blackie," "Slim," "Banty" (and so on) have come and gone leaving their mark on the legends of the road.

The next time you go to a concert remember that you're only observing the tip of the iceberg. After the crowd has gone, after the performers are sitting on the bus, after the spotlights have gone out, the road crew takes over and does their thing. They're the first ones to get there and the last ones to leave.

God Bless the roadies.

What do you think?

Pray for our troops, and for our country

God Bless America

Charlie Daniels

 

©Copyright The Charlie Daniels Band